Even though I really would rather wait until I get an amazing kitchen scale to start really experimenting with more recipes, I didn’t feel like doing my reading for class tonight (shhhhh) so I decided to work on a scone recipe. At the celiac monthly dinner at Flora Rose house the other night, I got requests for gluten-free chocolate chip scones and cinnamon buns. Well ladies, here is my first attempt at the scones.
After trying to find a good online recipe for a gluten-free scone to inspire my own scone recipe and failing miserably, I decided to use one of the new books I recently purchased, Professional Baking, by Wayne Gisslen (fifth edition). I have just started looking at this book, and it is really amazing. There are step-by-step full color photos of different baking techniques, and the recipes are simple and are written in ratios. According to Professional Baking (p.226), the ingredient proportions for scones are as follows:
Bread flour 50%
Pastry flour 50%
Sugar 12.5%
Salt 1%
Baking powder 6%
Shortening and/or butter 40%
Eggs 15%
milk 45%
total 219%
The recipe told me to follow the method for making simple biscuits on page 219, and here is what it said:
Procedure-Biscuit Method
1. Scale all ingredients accurately.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl.
3. Cut in the shortening, using the paddle attachment or the pastry knife attachment; if you prefer, cut in the fat by hand, using a pastry blender or your fingers. Continue until the mixture resembles a coarse cornmeal.
4. Combine the liquid ingredients
5. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients. Mix just until the ingredients are combined and a soft dough is formed. Do not overmix.
6. Bring the dough to the bench and knead it lightly by pressing it out and folding it in half. Rotate the dough 90 degrees between folds.
7. Repeat this procedure 6 to 10 times, or for about 30 seconds. The dough should be soft and slightly elastic but not sticky. Overkneading toughens the biscuits.
The dough is now ready for makeup (p.219).
I decided to attempt to make some nice, roll-out scones, but actually ended up putting too much coconut milk into the batter and having to add 1/2 cup additional flour (I added the gluten-free flour blend #2 that I made earlier) and some extra baking soda to the recipe to even things out. The dough ended up being very sticky, so I decided to make drop scones instead of roll-out and cut-out scones. Essentially, I started with a recipe for rol-out scones but ended up with drop scones even though I didn't follow the proportions for the drop scones (recipe is also on page 219 of my book, right below the recipe for 'regular' scones). BUT THEY ARE REALLY, REALLY GOOD! Also, since proportions for gluten-free goods are different than 'regular' baked goods, it shouldn't be that bad that I really played with the ratios of ingredients.
Chocolate chip drop scones #1 (gluten-free)
½ cup gluten-free flour blend #2
¼ cup oat flour
¼ cup buckwheat flour
¼ cup potato starch flour
¼ cup tapioca flour
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
¼ cup sugar
1 stick butter, chilled and grated with a cheese grater
1 egg
½ cup coconut milk
Chocolate chips to your preference
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Sift flours (gluten-free flour blend #2 or your favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour blend, oat, buckwheat, potato starch, and tapioca) into a bowl. Add salt, baking powder, baking soda, and sugar, and then sift all dry ingredients until uniform consistency. Grate the butter with a cheese grater into the bowl of dry ingredients and then crumble everything together with your hands so the mixture resembles a coarse meal. In a separate bowl, stir together coconut milk and egg, and then pour into dry mixture. Stir everything together.
Batter will be very sticky. Drop by rounded dollops onto a cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Yield is about 9 palm-sized scones (well, unless you burn 3 of them like I did!).
